Across the country, the third-grade reading mania that spurred laws in 19 states in the early 2000s seems to be returning. New Mexico and Utah just sent literacy bills to their respective governors.
Early literacy has become a “top policy focus” in Oklahoma, while Missouri and Nebraska are both working on their own bills. In Arkansas, meanwhile, the retention provisions of a third-grade reading law passed in 2024 will take effect at the end of this school year, and roughly 3,000 Indiana students are repeating third grade this year following the implementation of their reading law.
Without question, third grade is a critical milestone, and the stakes are well-documented: A child who cannot read proficiently by third grade is four times less likely to graduate high school on time. That statistic has driven more than a decade of literacy policy, and for good reason.
But the unintended consequence of this renewed focus on early reading may be a myopic focus on third grade as the finish line, leaving too many non-proficient readers without the ongoing support they need.
How long literacy can take
Reading proficiency rates among America’s fourth-graders are at an all-time low, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. An emerging body of research is proving the importance of continuing literacy instruction into middle school.
A recent report from NWEA shows that most middle school students find themselves without broadly structured reading instruction, but are expected to read and write on increasingly complex texts.
Too many students who aren’t yet fluent—and many who appear to be—need structured reading instruction well beyond the early grades. Rather than considering third grade proficiency the only path to literacy success, policymakers and schools should extend the runway.
Of course, there are good reasons why we’ve historically prioritized third grade as such an important marker for literacy. Seminal work from Johns Hopkins University researcher Robert Balfanz shows that a student who can’t read on grade level by third grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time.
Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer.
The third-grade focus has improved how we teach reading, too. But recent achievement data show we’ve underestimated how long it can take, and how many students need more time.
According to the most recent NAEP scores, 40% of fourth-graders and one-third of eighth graders do not meet the “basic” proficiency level in reading, a grim validation of the need for literacy systems that don’t stop at third grade.
More structured literacy is needed
One reason these struggles persist unnoticed is that the way we’ve historically measured reading changes as students get older. In K–3, assessments typically assess foundational skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency alongside comprehension.
By middle school, most assessments focus primarily on comprehension—so decoding gaps, weak fluency, and limited vocabulary often show up as a broad “comprehension” issue. That makes it harder to diagnose what students actually need, and easier for schools to assume that reading instruction is no longer necessary.
There needs to be a continuation of structured literacy instruction into fourth and fifth grades to ensure that kids coming out of third grade are prepared to read and comprehend more complex text in future years. Only with an extended focus on foundational literacy can we ensure that upper elementary students develop the skills needed to comprehend complex, challenging texts across subject areas.
This focus helps prevent skill gaps from emerging and ensures that students and educators experience greater success beyond the ELA curriculum.
Some states are already taking strides to address this: Virginia, for example, requires core literacy instruction for every student in grades K-5 and additional support for students in grades 6-8 as needed. Similarly, Indiana provides support for struggling middle school readers with summer school intervention, universal screenings, parent notification and progress monitoring.
Third grade is a checkpoint
The shift toward evidence-based reading instruction—the “science of reading”—has begun to improve outcomes in many places, including Mississippi, which moved from 49th in the country for fourth-grade reading scores in 2013 to 8th in 2024.
According to an Education Week analysis, 40 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or policies related to evidence-based reading instruction since 2013. But these efforts have largely concentrated on K–3, leaving too many students without structured literacy support once they move into upper elementary and middle school.
As the NWEA report points out, many students simply haven’t built the decoding and word-analysis skills complex texts demand. A 2024 study from the Educational Testing Service found that more than 20% of students in grades five through seven routinely trip over words they don’t recognize or can’t sound out, which can shut down comprehension.
Upper-elementary literacy instruction has to keep strengthening the foundational skills that make fluent reading possible: decoding multisyllabic words and using prefixes, roots, and suffixes to break down unfamiliar terms.
Third-grade proficiency remains an essential benchmark, and states should continue pushing for as many students as possible to meet it. But the strongest literacy systems won’t be the ones that treat third grade as the finish line.
They’ll be the ones that treat it as a checkpoint—a moment to assess progress, address remaining gaps, and ensure every student has the support to keep moving forward.
